Taxing the rich/closing loopholes – a thumbs-up

President Barack Obama delivers a speech to a joint session of Congress at the Capitol in Washington, Thursday, Sept. 8, 2011. Watching are Vice President Joe Biden and House Speaker John Boehner. Photo: (AP Photo)

President Obama has seen his job approval rating in the Gallup Poll fall into the 40 percent range. But the president’s jobs plan gets high marks in Gallup’s latest national survey.

“Americans generally favor raising taxes on higher-income Americans and eliminating tax deductions for some corporations as ways of paying for President Obama’s proposed jobs plan,” Frank Newport of Gallup wrote in a report Tuesday.

When Gallup polled on “Increasing taxes on some corporations by eliminating certain tax deductions,” 70 percent said they were in favor, and just 26 percent opposed.

On a second issue, “Increasing income taxes on individuals earning at least $200,000 and families earning at least $250,000,” the results were 66 percent in favor and 32 percent opposed.

Republicans have decried what House Majority Leader Eric Cantor called “class warfare” but, Newport wrote, “the current data show that the majority of Americans generally favor increasing taxes on the rich as a way to increase revenue.”

“Slightly more than half of rank-and-file Republicans and Republican-leaning independents favor the idea of eliminating certain corporate tax deductions as a way to pay for a jobs creation bill,” Newport reported.

“Forty-one percent of Republicans favor raising taxes on higher-income Americans. Democrats strongly favor both proposals for paying for the cost of the jobs bill.”

The proposals in Obama’s jobs plan received generally high marks in the Gallup Poll. Findings included:

By an 85-13 percent marking, Americans endorse providing tax cuts for small businesses, including incentives to hire workers;